Play the $4 Po’ Boy Sandwich Lottery at Falletti Foods

I’m something of a connoisseur when it comes to sandwiches. There’s really no more versatile or more portable carb-and-meat combination for my money (which isn’t very much money). The only problem with sandwich shopping in San Francisco is that every “sandwich shop” has a two-hour wait for something they’re just going to slather in garlic sauce anyway and the sandos are never really that cheap. I think even Subway charges 8 bucks for a five-dollar footlong in this city.

So imagine my surprise when I came up a massive sandwich for $4 out-the-door while perusing the most bourgeoisie grocer in my neighborhood – the Falletti Foods on Broderick and Oak. If you’re not familiar, Falletti’s proximity to the Panhandle and Golden Gate park makes it an ideal pre-picnic stop, but they generally only stock high-end items so it’s never very cheap. Even if you just pop in for a candy bar and a soda, you’re going to spend more than you want to because they only have imported chocolate bars and 100% organic pure-cane bullshit sodas. Their deli ain’t exactly cheap either, because they only stock the most delicious, least-affordable, high-end meats in town.

But if you’ve got a keen eye, you can find – hidden amongst the pre-made sushi and the take-and-bake empanadas – a selection of $4 Po’ Boy sandwiches. As far as I can tell, these half-price sandwiches are just a random selection of multiple meats and cheeses on a nice roll, priced to move. They don’t even try to mess around with lettuce and tomatoes, which is fine with me because those just make sandwiches soggy anyway. The deli labels don’t even tell you which meats you’ll be getting, so you kind of just have to go with your gut and grab one that looks tasty. On the bright side, you know all the meats are quality because this is still Falletti’s. So far, my spins on the wheel of Po Boy roulette have gotten me a couple of killer turkey and salami sandos without trucking all the way over to North Beach and waiting in line at Molinari’s.

Andrew Dalton - Aggressive Panhandler

Andrew is an East Coast transplant from Virginia hamming it up in San Francisco without any intention of leaving. Having worked every typical job from Bike Shop Employee to Bartender to Ad Agency Hotshot, to Dotcom Layoff he now busts his ass covering the "weird things to do" beat for gracious local audiences at SFAppeal.com and rallies the Western Addy/Lower Haight/Panhandle neighborhoods into action at AggressivePanhandler.com. His work was published in a real, paper magazine one time. One day he might even figure out how to make money from it.

Just beware- the “random selection of multiple meats and cheeses” is most likely “shit that’s going to expire in the next hour.”

Not to say that food that has “expired” is at all bad for you; the laws for that kind of things are stringent, and chain stores will err on the side of caution because they can afford it.

But let’s just say when I worked at the deli at a now-defunct Cala Foods, I never ate their “po’ boys.”

Joe

RJ’s (Levi’s Plaza) and Bayside (by the ballpark) markets have a sandwich of the week, which is $4.49. Even if you add on cheese, avocado, etc, it ends up less than $6. Also, Banh Mi sandwiches from Vietnam on Broadway are delicious and $3.

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